Scott Bolinger is the CEO and co-founder of Kinsta, a managed WordPress hosting provider. He has been in the WordPress hosting industry for over 10 years and has seen the industry evolve from the early days of shared hosting to the modern era of managed WordPress hosting. In this interview, Scott shares his insights on the WordPress hosting industry, the challenges of running a managed WordPress hosting provider, and his vision for the future of Kinsta.
Q: What inspired you to start Kinsta?
A: I had been working in the WordPress hosting industry for over 10 years and had seen the industry evolve from the early days of shared hosting to the modern era of managed WordPress hosting. I saw an opportunity to create a better hosting experience for WordPress users and decided to take the plunge and start Kinsta.
Q: What challenges have you faced in running a managed WordPress hosting provider?
A: One of the biggest challenges we face is staying ahead of the curve when it comes to technology. We have to constantly be innovating and improving our platform to ensure that our customers have the best experience possible. Additionally, we have to stay on top of the ever-changing security landscape and make sure that our customers’ sites are secure.
Q: What do you think sets Kinsta apart from other managed WordPress hosting providers?
A: We strive to provide the best customer experience possible. We have a team of WordPress experts who are available 24/7 to help our customers with any issues they may have. Additionally, we have a powerful and reliable platform that is optimized for WordPress and provides our customers with the best performance possible.
Q: What is your vision for the future of Kinsta?
A: Our goal is to continue to be the best managed WordPress hosting provider in the industry. We want to continue to innovate and improve our platform to ensure that our customers have the best experience possible. Additionally, we want to continue to provide our customers with the best customer service and support in the industry.
You can find Scott on LinkedIn or Twitter . This is our recent interview with him, as part of our Kinsta Kingpin series.
Q1: What is your background, & how did you first get involved with WordPress?
I didn’t grow up coding like a lot of people, I was pretty late to the game. I actually got a degree in Music (Jazz Guitar) in college, and went on to sell boats after that. I started making the website for the boat dealership I worked for around 2005, and got interested in web and graphic design. I got a job as a graphic designer, which turned into web design pretty quickly, then I went off on my own and started doing client work. I got into WordPress as an easy way to put together websites for my clients, and have been diving deeper ever since. Around 2010 I started a premium theme company, and also created a SaaS website builder for fitness professionals.
Q2: What should readers know about all the stuff you’re doing in WordPress these days?
I started AppPresser in late 2013, we released the first version of our product in January of 2014. I’ve been doing that full time ever since.
Q3: What challenges did you face in getting to where you are now professionally?
When we started AppPresser, we didn’t really know if it was going to work. I just knew I wanted to build mobile apps on top of WordPress but didn’t really know much about apps. We figured out each thing as we went along, and then prayed that Apple would not reject our unique way of creating the apps. It all worked out in the end obviously, and we’ve come a long way since. We are now on the 3rd major version of our platform, which is light years beyond where we started.
Q4: Has anything surprised you while coming up in the WordPress world?
I was surprised by the success we had with AppPresser, we sold 5 figures in the first 3 weeks. It’s been a really fun ride, with lots of ups and downs. I’m really looking forward to going even bigger in the coming years.
Q5: What does the future look like for you in the WordPress world?
This year I think a lot of plugin developers will start moving to SaaS. Some of the early plugin shops are now multi-million dollar companies, they are working on what it looks like to scale and think bigger. A few WordPress companies were acquired in 7 and 8 figure deals, this is certainly changing how I think about my business. It used to be rare to have a 7 figure WordPress product business, but that is changing quickly.
Q6: What do you look for in a WordPress host?
I need a WordPress host that is reliable, with great technical support. I don’t mess around with cheap hosting, I need my site up and I’m willing to pay for it.
Q7: What do you enjoy doing when you’re away from your laptop?
I ride mountain bikes a lot, we have some great trails near me in Laguna Beach and Aliso Viejo. I hang with my family a lot as well, chasing my kids around mostly!
Q8: Whom should we interview next & why?
Devin from GiveWP.
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